Trio taken in draft

Baseball: Three players with local ties picked on third day of MLB Draft.

June 10, 2010|By Gabriel Rizk

GLENDALE — After waiting through the first two-plus days of the 2010 Major League Baseball First-Year Players Draft, three prospects with local ties finally heard their names called in the later rounds on Wednesday, the third and final day of the draft.

But for Dustin Emmons, Jesse Meaux and Lonnie Kauppila, all of whom have at least one year of college eligibility left to consider, the game plan going forward remains to wait and see.

Emmons, a 2007 Crescenta Valley High graduate, and Meaux, who graduated from Glendale in 2007, each just completed successful junior seasons at UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara, respectively, and plan to play in amateur leagues over the summer before weighing any prospective offers from the clubs that drafted them.

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In Emmons' case, that would be the Florida Marlins, who selected him with the 1,217th pick overall in the 40th round, while Meaux was picked 1,341st overall in the 44th round by the Philadelphia Phillies.

"I was pumped," said Emmons, who was in the midst of final exams on Wednesday before he got the news. "It's an honor to be even mentioned and drafted with all of those top picks."

Kauppila, a transfer from Crescenta Valley, who recently graduated from Burbank, is taking a more long-term approach to the wait-and-see tactic, indicating he will opt to attend Stanford in the fall rather than sign with the Oakland Athletics, who drafted him 1,325th overall in the 44th round.

"I wasn't really surprised, but I was just relieved that I actually got drafted, anyway," Kauppila said. "I was kind of anxious to know [when I would be drafted]. I was just waiting and trying to see what's gonna happen. I was just waiting for my name and it finally came today."

For Emmons, who went 9-4 with a 3.99 earned-run average for the Highlanders this season, it was actually the second time he had gone through the draft process. The Pittsburgh Pirates selected him 1,299th overall in the 44th round.

"This time I kind of knew I was going to get drafted somewhere," Emmons said. "Out of high school, I told everyone I was going to go to school, so I didn't think I was going to get drafted.

"It was cool, it was definitely more fun this time because I knew I was going to get drafted, I just didn't know when."

Meaux, who went 8-3 with a 4.41 ERA this season for the Gauchos and was a Big West Conference honorable mention, got calls from his advisor and from a Phillies scout with the news on Wednesday.